Murray Newman wasn’t a religious man, but he had a near-holy reverence for the world beneath ocean’s waves. Newman, the founding director of the Vancouver Aquarium, died Friday afternoon in Burnaby Hospital after having a stroke at home. He was 92.

The annual spring bloom of microscopic algae coinciding with the migration of hundreds of thousands of western sandpipers could pose a roadblock for Port Metro Vancouver’s planned $2-billion expansion at Roberts Bank in South Delta.

Vancouver-based biotech firm Precision NanoSystems Inc. (PNI) has created a tabletop device that produces “self-assembling” molecules that carry drugs and gene therapies directly into the cells of the human body. Using the unique physics of fluids at the nano-scale, the NanoAssemblr combines active ingredients — such as therapeutic strands of DNA or RNA — with complementary particles such as fatty molecules to form a kind of armoured transport. The active ingredients are encapsulated until they reach their target.

Vancouver-based biotech firm Precision NanoSystems Inc. PNI has created a tabletop device that produces “self-assembling” molecules that carry drugs and gene therapies directly into the cells of the human body. Using the unique physics of fluids at the nano-scale, the NanoAssemblr combines active ingredients — such as therapeutic strands of DNA or RNA — with complementary particles such as fatty molecules to form a kind of armoured transport. The active ingredients are encapsulated until they reach their target.

Researchers have discovered a genetic “switch” so potent that it can doom one person to a lifetime of obesity while another remains normal, even in genetically identical twins. That means that many obese people aren’t overweight because of inherited traits or overeating, rather in many cases obesity is triggered by an unknown factor, possibly in the womb or early childhood, according to Andrew Pospisilik of the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics.

The pain medication most often given to premature babies that require assistance breathing may be damaging their brains. Morphine — often prescribed to early pre-term babies for the pain of breathing with a ventilator — is associated with reduced cerebellum size as well as motor and cognitive problems at 18 months, according to a new study led by researchers at the University of British Columbia. The cerebellum of infants given morphine were up to 8.1-per-cent smaller than those not administered the widely used opiate painkiller.

Researchers at the University of British Columbia have discovered a rare clay used as medicine by aboriginals in northern B.C. contains antibacterial properties that could be used to treat antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

This little book has been sitting on the BC Bestseller List all year, so I finally decided to find out why. It was the third highest-selling B.C.-published book in 2015 and is still going strong as the year draws to a close. What’s it all about and why would so many people want to read about it?

Advanced genomic tools being developed at the University of British Columbia will enable beekeepers to breed a made-for-Canada honeybee better able to resist pests and disease, according to molecular biologist Leonard Foster. Foster and co-leader Amro Zayed of York University will analyze the genetics of 1,000 bee colonies from across the country looking for a dozen traits that help western honeybees survive and thrive in Canadian conditions.

A new federally-funded project that uses genomics to improve the production of healthy fish hopes to replenish depleted coho salmon stocks on the West Coast. The project, called Coho: Culture, Community, Catch (EPIC4), will develop genomic resources and tools to improve stock identification, fisheries management and hatchery systems, and create Canada’s first land-based Coho salmon aquaculture industry.

A handful of British Columbians are helping test a new “gene silencing” drug designed to halt production of a toxic protein that causes brain wasting in Huntington Disease. A clinical trial now underway to prove the safety of the experimental drug ISIS-HTT will include 36 patients with very early symptoms of the disease.

A $400,000 pilot project is underway at Vancouver General Hospital to study how bone-marrow transplant patients rebuild an array of bacteria living in their bodies after invasive treatments knock it out. Research on the human microbiome — the billions of micro-organisms living in our gut, respiratory tract and on our skin — has exploded as its influence on our immune systems is unravelled.

The organic farming movement started as a response to industrial-scale agriculture that took hold after the invention of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides early in the 20th century and expanded massively in the years after the Second World War.

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